Well, this was an unexpected delight. I picked this book up on spec because it was Canadian but I didn’t know anything about it or the author. From the first page I was hooked because I realized that Ann Decter grew up in Winnipeg and this book was going to revolve around events that I well remembered. On top of that Decter has a poet’s ability at wordcraft which makes reading so enjoyable.
Jane is at her family cottage on West Hawk Lake for the summer of 1989 trying to decide her future. She takes on the task of pruning the caragana trees that were planted fifty years before and which haven’t been touched for ten years. While she works she reconstructs her family history, both her mother’s Irish side and her father’s Jewish side. Her father, Phil, died 7 years before and her mother, Sophia, about 4 years after that. They were not living together when Phil died so looking after him through his long illness fell to Jane (and her brothers but to a lesser extent). When Jane takes a break from her labour she listens to the radio which is reporting on the proceedings of the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry. The Aboriginal Justice Inquiry was put into place by the Manitoba government after two events which showed how justice failed aboriginal Manitobans. One event was the brutal murder of Helen Betty Osborne in The Pas in 1971 by four white men. Eventually two men were prosecuted for the murder and one of them was found guilty. The other event was the shooting of J. J. Harper by a City of Winnipeg policeman. Harper was stopped by the policeman who was looking for a car thief who may (or may not) have matched Harper’s description. Somehow the policeman’s gun went off and Harper was killed. It only took thirty-six hours for the police force to clear the officer of any wrongdoing.
People from both sides of Jane’s family were radicals. Her mother’s family in Ireland had supported the Republicans and the IRA. Her father’s father had taken part in the Winnipeg General Strike. Jane’s mother was one of the first women to run in a provincial election for the NDP. Jane thinks about her family history which formed her into the woman she has become. The first line in this book is “Memory is a stone.” I take that to mean that memory endures and perhaps holds you down.However, there are things that can destroy stone. Water can erode stone and in the children’s game paper covers rock. So will Jane be able to move beyond her memories and into the future?
I’m still puzzled by some of this book but I think I’ll be thinking about it in the future. That’s one of my tests for an exceptional book. Kudos to Ann Decter. ( )